contributed by —Melissa Bernardoni, CCUMC volunteer, January 2010

Amid the noise of 70 children settling into the classroom for a day of Vacation Bible School, Nery sat silently at the tiny orange table. He was intent, focused on the paper in front of him, purple crayon in hand. Slowly, deliberately, he spelled out his name in wobbly, crooked letters: N–E–R–Y.

Nery struck me as a quiet boy, with a serious face and mop of black hair. He also had big brown eyes—one of which seemed to wander and cross as he tried to write and color. As a volunteer for just one week, I couldn’t tell if his eyes were causing a significant problem. But Nery’s teachers at the preschool in Camanchaj, who saw him every day, observed that he wasn’t able to properly read or write because of his eyes.

So when Nery and his mom, Esther, learned that a volunteer medical team from San Antonio, Texas, might be able to correct his problem, they decided to put their trust—and Nery’s eyes—in the visiting surgeons’ hands.

Nery was one of five children who received eye surgery from the University UMC team in February 2010. In all, a team of 24 including surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses performed 50 successful operations over 5 days. Vision surgeries in particular are in demand in Guatemala, explained Salud y Paz volunteer coordinator Jay Cooper. “Older men have worked out in the fields most of their lives without proper eye protection,” he said, “ and older women have been in the kitchen without a chimney on their open-flame stoves.” In 2009 alone, Salud y Paz visiting teams examined 700 vision patients and performed 45 cataract surgeries.

‘God, give me good eyes’

Nery’s mom said he was so excited on the day of surgery that he woke up at 1 a.m. and prayed, “Please god, give me good eyes, and please help the surgeons operate on me.” Esther, on the other hand, was nervous as they arrived at the clinic in Camanchaj on the big day.

The team went to work on Nery, shortening the muscle in his eye to keep it from “wandering” to the other side. In just one hour, both eyes were fixed.

“He came in the next day with a huge smile, and his mom, with tears in her eyes, thanked the surgeons,” said Cooper. “A huge thanks to University UMC for all the great work they did in Guatemala.”

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